let’s explore
in 2024
Join me on a journey through the Bible with friends.
For the past few years, one of the great joys of my life has been to read the Bible from start to finish each year with a circle of friends.
Starting in January 2024, I’m opening up that circle to share the adventure of reading the Bible with you! It’s a one-year Bible adventure I’m calling Word & the Wild.
You are so invited!
Click here to listen to Word & the Wild on your favorite podcast platform. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and many more. 🎉🎉🎉
What’s made these one-year adventures with my friends so special has been the simplicity.
No lessons. No lectures. No workbooks.
Just reading the Bible as a group of regular people with a friendly guide to help make sure you won’t get stuck.
With support from a podcast and an interactive online community, this is the year when you finally read and enjoy the story of the Bible from start to finish.
For yourself.
It’s easy to join the Word & the Wild adventure.
Click here to subscribe
to the weekly podcast
on your favorite platform.
Then, follow Word & the Wild on facebook and instagram.
Get the most out of your journey.
Become a Word & the Wild PLUS member.
The Word & the Wild podcast is free open to everyone. But, there’s a lot more inside the PLUS community. In our private and safe online space, members get to interact, ask questions about what we’re reading together, and make friends. Members also enjoy bonus content like weekly video livestream Q&As.
Word & the Wild is a nonprofit organization, so your membership is tax-deductible. So, jump in!
Click here to find out more about how become a member of the Word & the Wild PLUS community.
Join the Word & the Wild PLUS Community
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$14 A MONTH
Become a Word and the Wild PATHFINDER and enjoy access the Word and the Wild Plus community.
As a thanks for your donation of $14 a month, we offer full access to THE WILD – our private, safe, interactive online community. Ask questions about what you're reading, interact with Owen and his fellow guides, and enjoy exclusive bonus perks like weekly video livestream Q&As and more. Pairs perfectly with the podcast.
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$28 A MONTH
Make a way for you and someone else to join Word and the Wild PLUS as a TRAILBLAZER.
As a thanks for your monthly donation of $28, you can gift a second Word & the Wild PLUS membership to someone else – maybe a spouse or a friend. Or, let us gift your extra pass to someone who would like to join the community but isn't financially able to do so.
All the perks of a PATHFINDER membership, but for two!
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$50 A MONTH
Love Word and the Wild and want to see it sustain and grow? Become a Word and the Wild SHERPA.
With your monthly gift of $50 a month, we offer you full access to the Word and the Wild Plus community. AND, you will share the load to support our mission: to see neighbors become friends who appreciate and understand the Bible together.
let's get wild
let's get wild
Adventure awaits.
The Backstory
It all began a few years ago.
A woman grabbed me by the arm and asked, “Can you help us?”
She and a few friends had started to try to read the Bible together. They were a few weeks in. It wasn’t going well. Why the trouble? If you’ve ever picked up a copy and tried to read it, then you know why.
The Bible is packed full of characters and stories. But what is it trying to say? It’s the best selling book of all time, but when you don’t get the plot, it’s hard to understand why it’s so popular.
So, this woman, her friends, and I started to read the Bible together that year. We picked a version with clear, simple words. And, we set a few ground rules.
First, no honest question is off limits. Second, there’s no guilt of you want to quit. Third, there’s no lesson. I’ll be a guide to make sure you don’t miss the key plot points or get lost, but it’s all based on honest conversation.
We all had a blast. It was so much fun, we added more people the next year. And a few more the year after that. Now, there are even more of us who are reading the Word together and taking what we read out into the Wild.
We would love for you to join us.
A Podcast + A Community
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A Guide By Your Side
The Word and the Wild podcast coming to your favorite podcast platform in January 2024.
Each week, Owen will be your host and guide for a one-year chronological journey though the Bible. That means the Bible will unfold week-by-week in story order.
This is not a recap or devotional. It’s a reader’s guide to help you enjoy and explore the Bible for yourself. And, it’s offered up free to everyone.
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An Interactive Community
Subscribers to Word and the Wild, gain access to a private online community. It’s a safe space for fun, lively conversation with your fellow travelers.
Bonus content enriches the experience, including the ability to ask questions and get responses from Owen and his friends in a live weekly Q&A livestream.
When you chip in to support the Word in the Wild project, you’ll gain access to all this, plus other fun surprises along the way.
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A Place for You
With support from your podcast guide and an online community of fellow travelers, you can experience the story of Scripture the way it was alway meant to be explored – in it’s own words and on it’s own terms.
You may be someone seeking to soak in all the Bible has to offer. Or you may be untangling yourself from a religions tradition that leaves you with lots of questions. Or, someone who’s heard about the Bible, but want to dig in for yourself.
This is the place for you.
FAQs
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Starting in January 2024, a circle of friends will begin a one-year adventure to read the entire Bible. We are going to use a chronological plan to read, which means we will travel through the Bible in story order from beginning to end.
There will be a weekly readers’ guide podcast that’s free to everyone. Those who become members of Word & the Wild PLUS gain access to an interactive online community with bonus content like livestreams, live Q&As, and resources to enrich your journey and make it fun.
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First thing to do is sign up for the email update list on this page. Then, you’ll be in the loop.
Then, click here to listen to Word & the Wild on your favorite podcast platform. We’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube, and many more.
You’re also going to want a way to read the Bible with us. When you join the email list, I’ll give you the exact details you need in order to get the same Bible we’re all using. It’s inexpensive, but you’ll want the same one we’re all using together.
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I’m Owen. I’ll be your host and guide for this one year Bible adventure I’m calling Word and the Wild. This year of reading and talking about the Bible with a circle of friends brings together a number of my passions.
For one thing, the Bible has shaped my life. I love to read it, talk about it, and teach it. My background includes a couple of Master’s degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary. I’ve learned from and been mentored by some world-class Bible teachers. I’ve also studied how adults learn and how to make big ideas stick.
Another part of my life has been about telling stories. I’ve worked as a radio and TV producer and presenter. My favorite gigs were in sports. So, I have a fun side, love talking with people, and have a bunch of experience with creating media content.
I’ve also been a pastor at some big churches. That work has taken me in front of crowds and all over the world. But my favorite thing is to gather up simple circles of interesting friends, throw the Bible and life into the conversation, and see where it takes us.
So, Word and the Wild takes my fun side, my nerdy Bible side, my tech side, my pastor side, and my curious social side and pulls it all together into one big, fun adventure. I hope you’ll add your life and experiences to our circle of friends.
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You mean a Bible reading podcast adventure with an online community of people where no honest question is off the table? I’m not sure anyone has done something like this before. 😅
I’ve been a guide to people through the story of the Bible in groups for years. One of my motivations for Word & the Wild is that I’ve seen time spent with the Bible one the course of a year change lives.
Podcasts, livestreams, and online communities are all part of my background, too.
All in all, our adventure together will be solid, simple, and special.